NEQ6 DEC AXIS STIFF!

[Daniel-K]

last night i was all gear'd up for a run in the obsy when upon balancing the scope with he new scope piggybacked i found my DEC axis is stiff and not like it was a few days ago, now the other day i could do 150 secs unguided and last night it was dropping 2 out f 3 subs @120 seconds, i even dropped it down to 100 secs and it was still the same, PA was done via align master but im convinced the tight DEC is causing trails, i have looked at astro babys guide its a bit to much effort for a simple minded person like me the mount is only a few months old and has hardly been ran! nay advice please!!!

[Auntystatic]

Is it still stiff with no scope mounted?

[Daniel-K]

Is it still stiff with no scope mounted?

yes it is

[haitch]

Contact the retailer - it's times like this you find out if they are any good!

[alan potts]

I hope they do something about it, I hope you didn't get it from TS I found they very obstructive when I had a problem.

What I find a strange is many many people say good things about this range from SW but the forum is always full of problems with them. I don't rate them, I want rid of mine.

Alan.

[Singlin]

How tight do the 3 small allen screws under the three silver cross head screws on the crown of the dec shaft have to be?

As soon as I tighten them my dec axis becomes stiff with clutch off.

[Singlin]

My Dec axis is not stiff with no scope but as soon as i mount my scope the axis is stiff.

Any ideas on how I can loosen it up?

[Astro_Baby]

The grub screws on phe crown only hold the DEC criwn to the shaft, together with the large round nut under the saddle. I can see no reason why adjusting these would make the mount stiff UNLESS whats happening here is the mount is hopelessly out of tune and whats really happening is by loosening them you are allowing the crown to rotate on the shaft which is not a good thing.

Its ver hard to describe this in words but the crown is fixed to the shaft. The shaft rotates freely with the crown with the clutches released. Both freewheel around the large brass ring gear. The ring gear is permantly engaged to the motor and thefore locked. When you apply the clutches, ie the clutches are right the crown and the shaft are locked to the ring gear.

If by loosening these screws the crown is fee to rotate but not free to rotate with them right it suggests to me that the corwn is spinning on the shaft which means the motors wont drive the mount proprly. At least thats all I can think of at this time of night after three very large brandies.

Alan...these ARE good mounts and most posts you see with problems are people trying to tune them to be better mounts OR people who have acquired them secondhand in not a good condition or users who simply cant be bothered to read the manual and learn stuff. The number that are genuinely dead or unusable on arrival is pretty small compared to how many of them are out there.

[Singlin]

What I have done this evening is to place the brass ring gear into the crown with dec shaft bolted on and grub screws on the crown tightened.

Sure enough as soon as I tightened the grub screws the brass ring gear would no longer rotate in the crown.

I dismantled the shaft from the crown and noticed that the narrow smooth ring on the shaft where the grub screws from the crown go was badly worn and gauged by repeated tightening of these grub screws. The wear was so bad that when tightening the grub screws dec shaft would not be true (straight) and therefore the brass ring gear was not seated centrally. What I have done is to sand the deca shaft as smooth as possible taking as much of the burring off as I could and then held the shaft as straight as possible whilst tightening the grub screws. I then fitted the brass ring gear into the crown and low and behold it now turns. It still is not good enough for an accurate balance of the scope but it is much better. I will continue to sand the dec shaft and hopefully I will be able to have a freely rotating dec axis.

After the tuning the ra axis is perfect, it's just this dec axis has been a pain

.

[Singlin]

At 02:00 this morning I finally managed to balance my 200p on my EQ6.

It has taken me a couple of months to get here but I never gave up and was rewarded.

The hole of the dec crown and the saddle on the dec shaft that accommodates the crown were badly worn. I sanded these two to be as true as possible .I also sanded the inside of the crown. I was afraid to sand the inside of the crown too much in case my clutch would no longer hold, so what I did was to sand quite vigorously the top third and bottom third of the crown with 500 wet and dry. I kept sanding,checking,sanding,checking etc untill I got the result.

I would like to thank everyone that has helped me on the way especially Astro-Baby for her concise article and personal help. I think that she gave up on me in despair a while ago. I promise you Astro Baby that I did your strip down and tune up article justice by following it by the letter. I just stumbled on a mechanical hitch in the dec axis shaft and Crown on the way.

[Astro_Baby]

Oh nothing wears me down, just been a bit busy of late. And in truth I had no idea what the problem might be with the DEc. its so hard to know based on text. Lots of things could be wrong.

Do you have any idea how the mount was damaged this way....was it a new mount or second hand ?

Its an odd one that I havent seen on any rebuilds I have done.

i am glad though its worked out. Sometimes I think of bringing offline my guides because. Wonder at times if I am only helping people to wreck their mounts.

Its almost impossible to describe everything that can go wrong in a mount really.

As I say just happy yours is now working.

[Singlin]

The mount is third hand and is a 2006 model.

The mount is battered and bruised and looks as if it has been dropped.

Please don't take your guide down as I would not have a working mount now without it.

I did not pay a great deal for it and I know a person who knows the previous owner. He said that he was glad to get rid of it.

Anyway for less than 500 euros I have an updated mount(new bearings) that works.

Below is a photo I took lasr Friday at my first stargazing party.

[Astro_Baby]

Well you sure have patience and you have been rewarded with a great pic. i am just glad it all worked out. Its terribly hard to advise people remotely because there can be so many reasons for problems and its a bit like trying to diagnose whats weong with a car engine when you cant see whats happening.

As I say, just ver glad its all worked out for you.

By the way as to reliability etc etc raised earlier, if you look at dorums you will see Celestron CGEMs have their fair share of problems as well and the CG5 is no angel either. All of this kit is built down to a peice but ifele really find they hate the EQ6 or HEQ5 I will glasly takem them off your hands for £100 a unit

[Singlin]

Mine is working fine now. I can finally say that it was a bargain.

The advantage of the bad state of repair it was in when i bought it is that I learned a huge amount about it in fixing it.

The whole mount is relatively simple and solid and once the mechanical discrepancies are tuned out with each individual mount I believe that they can be reliable.

[earth titan]

Like anything, a level of mechanical sympathy is required. I had issues with my NEQ6 but with a 'little' bit of sympathetic tinkering and better grease, works a treat.

Typed by me, using fumms...

[Daniel-K]

i had mine in bits on my bench thinking its doomed im going to after fork out for a another new one, but its all fine now a bit of lithium grease and its great

[earth titan]

i had mine in bits on my bench thinking its doomed im going to after fork out for a another new one, but its all fine now a bit of lithium grease and its great

The stock grease (I use the term loosely) is #appropriate expletive# and should be replaced ASAP.

Typed by me, using fumms...

[Astro_Baby]

Aha the lithium grease. Tyere has been much talkedbof assorted greases and recently someone pointed out that Ap mounts dont in fact like Superlube as it provides roo much suction and makes things a bit gummy. Superlube has been much admired as a better option than lithium and quite reently I changed my guides to suggest superlube after a few people said their lithium grease broke down and went chalky.

I have to say I have had lithium in my HEQ5 for about three years in all weathers and its fine.

I think itwould be fair to say if you use pure lithium grease than there may be issues. Most commercial lithium grease stocked in bike shops is usually a semi synthetic. i use a brand called TF2 which is a lithium and teflon composite.

Just thought I would say that....

[Jiggy 67]

Sometimes I think of bringing offline my guides because.

Nooooo!!!!!!.....don't even consider it!!!!!

[earth titan]

Nooooo!!!!!!.....don't even consider it!!!!!

I agree. They are much appreciated. Whenever anyone sticks their head above the parapet they run the risk of slings and arrows, but those that hurl the stones are generally those that complain from the sidelines. They make a hobby of it!

Typed by me, using fumms...